No Pinochios Please

Lying on your resume is just NOT the solution to shortcomings or a light resume!

Especially in today's day where information is so easily at our fingertips with nothing but a computer and an Internet connection - you know, the two items that are in almost every household in America today?

Though times are changing with respect to connecting job candidates to hiring managers, the resume is still the most productive job search tool that you carry in your job search arsenal. It is in most cases a hiring manager's or recruiter's first (virtual) impression.

When a hiring manager or recruiter does their initial research on a prospective candidate and finds fiction or embellishments on the resume, they tend to discard the resume entirely. Believe me, this happens and the trend is occurring more frequently this past year than ever before. It is getting very competitive out there for other reasons that just a slowing up economy. You have to be up-to-date with new media ways to connect with a hiring manager. Of course, this is just another reason to use a job recruiter who already may have many hiring manager's ears on a daily basis.

But lying or even bending the truth slightly is just not a good way to get your resume to the top of the pile.

Resumes are being presented to hiring managers and recruiters via new technology mechanisms that allow for us to search through resumes very quickly using keyword relevance found within a resume. So if you want to stick out from the rest, just enhance your resume with keywords that may be specific to a job you are applying for. That may mean having multiple versions of your resume. However, as aforementioned, the idea is not to embellish or turn into a Pinocchio.

Oh Boy! Some Rough Times Just May Get Even Rougher!

Well there goes the neighborhood. Goodness gracious, I mean, can we be in any more of an economical crisis in this country? Actually, please don't answer that, as I fear we actually can and just may in the unfortunate short term.

Evidently, if you sift through the reality, we are really, as a nation, bankrupt or on the verge of bankruptcy. And I don't mean to sound over-pessimistic, but this is gone from bad to sad. Shame on the SEC as a whole. And we can blame both parties as this is a bi-partisan issue. But I don't want this blog entry to digress into politics. We get enough of that these days.

What will be interesting is to see how the upcoming holiday season turns in relations to the markets overall. The upcoming holiday season is supposedly the only time of year where retail makes money. It's the time of year where large retail can escape out of the red and into the black. And coincidently the time of year where we should all feel blessed and thankfull for all that we have. I smell a very troublesome Q4 coming - as if it weren't already here.

Well, how does this relate to my blog about the job market? That should be obvious. But I actually wanted to write about something a friend of mine had seen in NYC yesterday that I touched on lightly a few months back. Remember, when I wrote about The Ultimate Job Board?

Well, yesterday a friend of mine had a meeting in Manahattan, NY. He was simply blown away by what he had seen. He saw, in rather large amounts, exectutives in sharp suits with signs around their necks asking for money or jobs. Many had signs asking for $20 to help them and their family make rent for the month. Just so sad. They seemingly had it all and just like that they become desparate for as little as $20. OMG! Just terrible.

This is just more mounting evidence that today you are not secure anywhere in terms of a career. You have to always be prepared and ready to market yourselves. If you haven't already, I urge you to do the following three things, starting right now:

• Polish up your resume
• Join LinkedIn.com and begin to build your network
• Call a local successful recruiting agency and get connected

These are very simple things you can do to help yourselves, should something bad happen with your current careers.

And in the meantime, let's all remember this time of trouble and put it in the back of our minds for next time we get complacent with spending, our jobs, our family nest eggs, our investments, etc.

I really hope that at some point my blog postings can get to a point where I can tout some good things about our economy and jobs. But... with all of this horrible news about the economy I have to tell you. There are still job orders coming in just about every day. Don't be fooled into being negative. When there is a will, there is always a way. You have to be in prepared and in control of your own destiny.

Recruiters Make Great Bridges

A recent placed candidate of ours "hated" his previous job. In fact hate may be too kind of a word to use for his description. He had been there for more than five years. In his last year there he decided to explore the possibility of finding a better job with better benefits, better quality work environment, closer to home and more rewarding overall.

He spent months using the plethora of online job boards to find open positions that seemed to fit his skill set. He sent his resume countless times using online job board systems and direct emails at local companies he wished to obtain a position with. Nothing. Not a phonecall, nor an email response. It frustrated him. He couldn't understand why.

When he finally found our website online (http://www.jtlservices.com), he decided to give us a shot. He sent an email with his resume and I reached for him later that day. He immediately voiced his frustrations. I could feel his tenseness. I could sense his aprehensiveness to using a recruiter. I could understand his slight feelings of hopelessness. And I told him - I could help.

I quickly explained to him the many benefits of a using a job recruiter. Within minutes he admittedly explained that he completely viewed a recruiter as an obstacle but realized he was wrong in that assumption.

What did I tell him? What I always practice and preach - I constantly and consistently repeat what should be obvious but nevertheless gets masked by misconception.

Here is the reality -

• Recruiters have existing relationships.
• Recruiters seek quality talent.
• Recruiters prepare and promote candidates.
• Recruiters place candidates.
• Recruiters make great bridges from candidates to clients

And recruiters dont get paid unless they do this. It is really that simple.